Thomas Wardle

Sir Thomas Edward Wardle (born 1912 in West Leederville, Western Australia, died in 1997) was a businessman and supermarket proprietor from Western Australia. He was best known for his "Tom the Cheap" supermarket chain as well as revolutionising grocery shopping in the state.

Wardle was a popular Lord Mayor of Perth from 1967 to 1972.

Early years Wardle's father, Walter Wardle, was born in Auckland New Zealand and arrived in Western Australia in 1890. Walter worked as a valuer and later as a branch manager at the Rural and Industries Bank of Western Australia. Tom was one of five children of Walter and his wife and the family lived in a number of towns in the south-west of WA. He attended schools at Albany, Katanning and Tambellup, and in Perth at Thomas Street School and Perth Boys School.

His mother died while he was in high school. In 1927 at the age of 15, Wardle started his working career at the National Bank. In February 1941, aged 28, he was charged with stealing £162/8/- from the bank's Merredin branch. He made full restitution of the money, which influenced a judge to impose a suspended sentence on a bond of £100. About the time of the theft, he was engaged in a romance with his sister's Swedish-born friend Hulda Olson, whom he married on 31 August 1940. the same year Tom and Hulda opened a corner-store grocery in rented premises in Fitzgerald Street, North Perth steadily building the business and good will. They purchased the property in 1952.

Tom the Cheap In early 1956 he sold the Fitzgerald Street shop and rented larger premises on Charles Street. After fitting it out himself with a self-service supermarket layout, he soon opened under a red on white sign displaying "Tom the Cheap". His business model was essentially discounted trading margins and a no-frills service— he applied a 10% markup as opposed to the standard 25% from his competitors.

Other activities From the mid-1960s, Wardle began to dabble in property development. In 1965, he bought the Sandovers site in central Hay Street for £500,000, which he opened as a "Tom's Other Store", together with other sites in South Perth and Mount Hawthorn. In 1966, he bought the Capitol Theatre at 10 William Street, which was the main live concert venue in Perth and home of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra.

In 1967, he ran for election as Lord Mayor of Perth following the sudden death of Charles Veryard. Wardle stated that he "... wanted to give the people something in return for what they have done for me in business". A complete newcomer to public office, he won the election comfortably with 28,068 votes against his main rival Sir Frank Ledger's 19,339 votes. He gave the profit from the sale to the City of Perth to assist in the construction of the city's long-awaited Perth Concert Hall—this was constructed with great encouragement from Wardle, between 1971 and 1973.

In 1968, the government of Sir Charles Court sold Dirk Hartog Island, which had until then been operated under a pastoral lease for sheep and wool production. Wardle argued that the island should be kept by the government as a nature reserve. The suggestion was declined, so the now immensely wealthy Wardle bought it for his own use as a private retreat for his family, substantially de-stocking the large sheep flock over several years.

Wardle was the state's best known philanthropist. Also in 1970 the Italian Government made him a Knight Commander of the Order of Merit, the first Western Australian to have been granted this.

In 1973, he was given an Honorary Doctorate of Law at the University of Western Australia and became a foundation senator at Murdoch University. It is run as an eco-tourism resort and maintained by Wardle's grandson, Kieran Wardle.